Prescription Drug Abuse
People are often prescribed medications without knowing and realizing the harmful and detrimental effects it can cause. In reality, when abused, they are very dangerous and can lead to addiction and kill more people than illicit drugs. Drug abuse has been around the world, dating back centuries. Drugs like cocaine, heroin, opium, and other highly addictive drugs have been used and abused my millions of people throughout history, but recently a new drug has emerged that is easier to obtain. Over the past two decades, the abuse on prescription drugs amongst teenagers has grown tremendously. The growing use and abuse of prescription drugs is a major global health concern today and the real scale of this problem is unknown.
One of the government agencies involved in fighting the nation’s drug war is the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). “The Office of National Drug Control was established by the Anti-Drug abuse act of 1988. Its principal purpose is to accomplish the following: establish policies, priorities, and objectives for the nation’s drug control program. The goals of the program are to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences (Robinson & Scherlen, 2014, p. 1).” The Office of National Drug Control Policy also came out with the program to battle teen prescription drug abuse. They believe that by educating parents about teen prescription drug abuse, they can create more media and public awareness. The key factor in this are the teenager’s parents, who need to better educate their children about the serious effects, consequences, and addictiveness of any type of drug use.
The government and its judicial system play a huge role in not being able to control this drug abuse issue. The judicial system continues to give light prison sentences to the suppliers and pushers of these so-called drugs. This serious issue deserves complete and entire attention from the government, whose key initiative is to halt any type of drug use. The government also needs to implement stricter penalties and form reliable health programs for these users.
Users of prescription drugs are the ones punished for possession, distribution and for crimes they commit while highly intoxicated with these drugs. Meanwhile, the main suppliers and head of these prescription drug companies continue to do what they do best – make more drugs and the advances in the pharmaceutical industry has also led to the production of more powerful medications.
One prescription and over-the-counter drug, “methamphetamine (meth) may be something of a “new” problem in the sense that major legislation did not come about until 2005, but the chemical itself has been around for much longer. Since its development in 1919, methamphetamine “cooks” has developed numerous variations on the recipe. Methamphetamine was developed by a Japanese chemist in 1919 and was utilized by the United States Military during World War II as a means of keeping troops alert and focused for long periods of time. The 1950’s and 1960’s continued to see the legal use of methamphetamine by a whole host of individuals “who needed the extra oomph to make it through the day or night… or who wanted to lose weight. Today, methamphetamine is still on the market legally as a prescription drug sold under the FDA-approved brand name Desoxyn. (Rigdon, 2012, p. 254).” Desoxyn treats attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, narcolepsy and obesity. This has been classified as a Schedule II controlled substance because it has a high potential for abuse and leads to physical and psychological dependence.
Methamphetamine drugs and other addictive prescription drugs, classified as Scheduled II controlled substance that the teens are getting are from their parents’ bathroom cabinet. Many parents are in denial or not aware of their kid’s drug use and abuse because of the lack of conversation or discussion about